So I've been noticing something over the past few days.
There are substantially more dolphins on Steemit every single day. Over the last couple of days my posts are being built up with transactions of over $.10, this is great news for all of us. Even a week and a half ago when I first started on Steemit the up votes I was getting that gave me good cash were mainly made of Whales and Minnows. Of course all the serious $$$ comes from the Whales, but it's imperative that Dolphins become the majority in my eyes, they are Steemit's middle class.
Steemit's middle class is growing!
Everyone knows that the middle class is the true backbone of a strong economy. While it slowly disappears in most English speaking Western countries as well as many other places in the world it grows significantly on Steemit. Soon enough the influx of new users will level out and we're going to see the middle class/Dolphins of Steemit gradually become an essential majority (I hope). Of course it would be great if we could all be Whales, with each of us up voting nearly every decent post we see just so everyone gets a huge piece of the pie. Truth be told, I am yet fully understand the economics of Steemit but if the majority of us were Whales I believe it would be unsustainable.
The influx of Dolphins shows how hard people are working.
It's not easy to become a Dolphin let alone a Whale, it takes a lot of Steem Power to get to that illusive point. It's comforting for me to see that every 5th or 6th up vote I get on a post is from a Dolphin. It shows me that if I keep working on my blog, writing and continue to post good content I'll be a part of that club and it'll give me the power to influence others posts more greatly.
Why are Dolphins so important?
Because we can't rely on Steemit Whales to give our posts value, as it stands I'm not sure if there are even more than 100 Whales right now. With several posts (if not more) being published every minute we honestly can't expect Whales like @dantheman and @berniesanders to keep up with all the good content, let alone up vote every single one of them. That's why I believe it's super important for us to keep building our pod of Dolphins, one day soon a post will be able to get into the hundreds of dollars just from up votes given to us from our finned friends.
As more users come, more up votes become available. Just imagine in the future when a great article can garner 1000 up votes easily. Lets just say that only 1 Whale up votes this, as well as 800 Dolphins and 199 Minnows. For the sake of the argument I will give them each a value:
Whales = $100
Dolphins = $1
Minnows = $.1
1 x $100 = $100
800 x $1 = $800
199 x $.01 = $1.99
$100 + $800 + $1.99
= $901.99
Now, that's not quite $35,000 for a make up tutorial but hey, if I could make $901.99 off of one post a week I'll be a very happy man. I believe everyone currently involved with Steemit that keeps putting in maximum effort will be a Whale or a Dolphin by the end of year and I can't wait for that!
JUST KEEP SWIMMING GUYS!
PEACE
The whales are actively seeking out people to promote up the ranks. We have no incentive to be a majority holder of a small puddle. We would much rather be a minority holder of a giant ocean. All that matters is that we grow from a puddle, to a pond, to a lake, to an ocean.
Whales are small in the grand scheme of an ocean of fish.
I have been trying really hard to move up the ranks through being active and helping out the #steemit hashtag on instagram and help sign up people from that community to Steemit. Feels so lame bringing in new members and then only being able to vote them up 1 cent when they introduce themselves... after 500 comments it also feels like whales only look at posts and dolphins are almost just as rare as them in comments.
Lately I burned out and lost the incentive to keep posting when a post about the facebook community makes 10k and none of the "whales" ever reply or reach back out to someone.
I have also invested 200 Steem of my own purchase so all you see in my wallet isn't just from what I've earned here.
Don't get discouraged. What @dan said is absolutely right. If your quality posts and comments aren't being recognized it may simply be that the usage of the site has exploded and whales can't be everywhere. This is a good thing because it means that usage is growing!
But as more and more dolphins (and just regular fish) grow up, there will be more and more powerful upvotes to go around all over the site.
New Chinese Dolphins here, i am a bitcoin long time holder, i heard and registered just a few days ago, i have 37k SP now, i am introducing steem to my Chinese friends and answer FAQs everyday, but It's hard to sign up even for my friends who is a software developer because of the Chinese Firewall, few Chinese use reddit, and it's impossible to sign up with a newly created account, Facebook was blocked too; VPN was blocked as well, not all of the place, but in some big cities such as Beijing, ShengZheng, etc. The police will talk even arrest you if you provide VPN service, One of my friend went to the police station yesterday because of this. And i posted about it, and tried to reach dan and ned in the wallet, and even posted on the github, but failed.
As you can see, the tag "cn" rise quickly , from nowhere to near top 10, because my friends and i posted a lot of posts for newbies, i upvoted every post in the cn tag to encourage newbies, and answered a lot of questions, and we are trying to build a Chinese community , we created QQ groups and wechat groups, the group numbers are growing fast.
Sorry to post here, i upvoted myself, i hope you developers was able to notice the problem and fix it for Chinese, thanks.
Yes, 99% of Chinese internet users don't have Facebook or reddit account, and Facebook is blocked by Chinese Firewall. They are very difficult to create a steemit account in China.
However, 99.9% of Chinese Internet users have QQ or Weixin accounts
I'd strongly suggest to @dan and @ned that Steemit team support for QQ or Wechat verifieation.
I've noticed that Cn tag moving up the ranks. I think you have spotted a massive potential market given the social media problems you describe in China. This would be a massive coup for Steemit if it fills the vacuum.
Great work that you do! I wish you much success with growing the Chinese community!
I'm Chinese too! Have a look at my article - I went on a Chinese dating show Fei Cheng Wu Rao haha.
That's a relief to hear! I'm hoping to get some wind beneath my wings as well, so I'm staying as active as I can and contributing as much as possible (without getting fired).
I agree, system is being used widely, usage will keep increasing. We will see some improvements, test few things and innovate. That is what we are here for, to not get stuck but move forward. btw, checkout #steemmobile. ;-)
Thank you @smooth, you will see soon those steem dollars will go to good use of the community for my next post!
Btw, since people listen to you, there is an account on Instagram called "steemit" and when asked if it was an official one it said yes, when asked to prove it by replying to me here, they gave no reply but still followed me and continued to make another post. So I hope you can warn users about their personal information and/or passwords.
Thanks again.
Upvote my post plz
duplicated
Don't get disheartened. Build your reputation over time. It will pay off in the end. Help people and the karma will eventually pay off.
It takes a lot of time and effort plus a lot of creativity to get noticed... ive been here for 10 days and rarely get noticed but my spirit wont be defeated. I will continue to be active and enganging and try to add value in this community by creating more contents and hope to get lucky that a dolphin or a whale will take notice of what i do... whining wont get us to the whales... we have to work for it... good luck to all of us.
the thing is that because in numbers whales are small the best strategy is the pump as much content you can pump and with high quality so once a whale spots your post he actually think it's up vote worthy.
I think that once we can actually follow others and receive notifications people can grow some followings that will read their posts so they will grow together with their audience.
The more entries you send, the more chances of winning..
I love it that @dan is actively engaging with the community! There are so many things on his plate but he still finds time to comment on new posts and put up some posts himself! cool!
You are right, but in this early stage whales still decide what content gets visibility. From my own experience, when I started first mobile app initiative, tried to ask number of questions, but somehow no answers, slack invites are closed. Finally spent few days to fiddle around and checked out Steem codebase to get a feeling about API for mobile app. Now posting updates almost daily, development continues, but getting testers is crucial in start of the project, if your post doesn't get visibility then no testers, no testers no encouragement. Though when you see recent post of someone else getting noticed, shows there is still interest, so you keep going and hope once application will have all features you will slowly reach users by providing quality.
Let there be an app that offers, for starters, these basic functions:
followdata from the blockchain - which is recorded by steemit, but not implemented yet. This would allow to have something like the Facebook feed: content of people one chooses to follow. With checkboxes to ex-/include posts/replies/votes, of course. Relatively simple filter.(steem OR steemit) AND economy, for example. Simple filter too.Traders will have even more wishes.
There is a huge demand and only little supply so far. piston.web almost comes close.
> so you keep going
Please, do! I have nothing to offer than, hopefully, certain rumors about a certain market that is soon going to fill up, steem willing, stake your claim.
Good to hear :) That's what I thought!
Holy schnikies, I bet you weren't expecting @dan himself to reply.
You got the big man backing your post :D
It's very hard to get some people to see that...
Cg
good to hear that
Nice coment @dan hehe
That's kinda what I figured was happening, you're looking for solid, involved, active individuals to help promote and grow the network.
As the dolphin class grows the whale class can relax, at this point the voting system should also have a much more natural feel to it as well which I for one am very much looking forward to. The diversification of post material is only going to grow and that alone is exciting.
It gives much tranquility that bring value to the community, really 8]
What are you looking for during your seeking? In the beginning I think asking the right questions will help lol
>The whales are actively seeking out people to promote up the ranks.
@dan
A "tricky" whale vote himself for creating dolphins masked as the same whale, it's logic :)
If not, upvote me and make me a new good whale to help me grow the italian community, thanks
Well how about we redistribute some of this wealth in some way dan ;) Maybe make the community contribute to projects that get everyone involved instead of chasing around whales.
That's pretty awesome any other platform not naming names the whales will always want to keep the wealth and build it and build it not pass it on so others can succeed. this is why steem and steemit will be a great crypto from now till when it ends infinite! :) keep up the great work boss.
Well said @dan, glad the middle class is growing though.
Happy to fill out the dolphin application
Great way to extend the metaphor!
What he said
You are absolutely right, we must try to create an eco system catering for all kinds of "fish" living together and helping each other out to survive. Promotion and adoption are of course the most inportant aspect right now, but scalibilty will come through upvotes and new users. The ocean is a big place, we all got a part to play in this.
@dan What sorts of things are you looking for? Variety? Certain types of content? Quality means a lot to different people.
Awesome
True but there is a limit to what you can see. There is a huge amount of material coming in and it is increasing all the time. As more and more dolphins emerge this will also help to increase diversity in what gets up-voted. Since the whales are limited in number there are likely to be certain types of topics that get overlooked simply due to personal preference.
Dolphinatley
for sharks.
Keep calm, Steem and Post on. our post shouldn't be centered on how much we can make in the now. Because if you continue to post great content and create a following rewards in Steem are sure to follow.
I make a post about 4 cents if it's got 0 votes.
10 bucks if it has a lot of votes.
I must be like a krill. Not even a Minnow.
Getting upvoted is so random. I don't quite get it but I'm trying.
Thanks for keeping an eye out for this type of info, it is very encouraging to read about it. Namaste :)
There is no economy without the middle class!
link to where i have featured your post https://steemit.com/life/@gavvet/daily-pick-of-hidden-gems-8-featuring-dragonslayer109-as-author
A minority of whales will great a majority of superdolphins that will take steemit to new heights. I truly believe this:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@razvanelulmarin/we-were-promised-a-revolution-and-the-whales-could-take-us-there
lol my friend came on that chick's tits when we were in college.
what about a HOFF category
r u prepared for hard fork?))
At first I made this
But now , since you talked about Steem Dolphin
We Need More Dolphins!
Great post my friend, i´m new on steemit and was a little confused about the upvote reward, you cleared this to me. i let you a Minnows upvote is all i can offer now. :-)
To only further the optimism, your $900 figure is extremely conservative for 1000 upvotes with the way voting is designed. Perhaps exponentially so if the post happens to be in the top one percent or tenth of a percent overall!
As voting is designed to be non-linear, per the white paper, this only goes to further your point!
I wrote a post yesterday about how the need to cater to whales in order to earn money on Steemit will diminish over time. Steemit will flourish as the system gravitates towards Steem Power equilibrium!
https://steemit.com/voting/@wpalczynski/how-the-need-to-cater-to-whales-in-order-to-earn-money-on-steemit-will-diminish-over-time
love the post i will be featuring it
You assume in the future of the steemit community that there will be more upvoters than posters in the future at least to a ratio increase. I believe more people will post and we will have to filter through the meh posts and try to find the better ones.
nice read. im excited to join the pod of dolphins. just gotta keep swimming till i get there
I can't wait for the day I become a dolphin, the best part is that, all I have to do is find interesting blog posts and upvote them, and eventually I'll be one of the privelidged few! Happy steeming
You got my vote. I'm not a whale, but it looks like it goes up a fair amount when I upvote. I think I am a dolphin. Dolphinrene"s!
Congratulations :)
Why does an upvote on one post go up more than on another? I'm just a newbie, so a minnow for sure, but sometimes my upvotes make the dollar amount go up a little.
I think because some people have more steempower than others. Here... have an upvote.
Thanks :)
Do you know that dolphins swim with the whales :) btw... #steempty loves steemit too !
Great article. My up vote gave you $7(I think?)
From an approving dolphin . Let hear some more. Mick
@timd you are the inspiration behind creating @steempool and the #steempool tag - where the collective power of the minnows are destined to have an impact on the steem community.
Thank you!!!
I am honoured, thank you :)
Great Post. Dolphins have been kicking ass lately, I've seen many posts get up in the ranks without a Whale in sight... Then they attract the Minnows, which attract those Whales!
I dont like your phrase,that someone is more important than anyone else over here.
Personally,i think that everybody is important, because all votes are making space for the others,and even small size account votes sum up finally.
I also don't like focusing on "catching a whale" or anything like that,f or me it seems that steemit just became "a profit machine" so people dont care about their posts ,their content.
They just are looking for a whale,and they dont give a fuck about anything else than getting money here, what is big problem in my opinion,because later we have shit posts,multi-accounts and plagiarism.
I dont like the whole conception of "whale" , why do you even bother about them? Do your job and hope that this great community will approve it.
I've gotta say articles like this are great motivation to provide maximum effort in helping grow the community. As someone who just signed up yesterday, it can be a little discouraging seeing some of the posts from people upset about how payouts, voting power, etc. work.
Articles like this reiterate how important it is not to get caught up in all details or monetary compensation. Steem is new, and always changing and improving and as long as we all stay active and contribute positive content the sky is truly the limit.
Keep on swimming!
Thats very true! I agree that dolphins are the backbone of the community and that they cannot rely on whales to upvote their post. I think in the end, the whales would only be a fraction of the huge mountain of steem.
Thats what is happening right now, a lot of dolphins are going active... that goes to show that we need to find more of this dolphins to engage in interactive disscussions
Steem is a great social and economical experiment. I wonder if it's actually possible to create a structure that allow a big and wealthy "middle class" with few whales and obviously lots of small fishes ready to grow. This would be amazing and could probably teach us how society economics could evolve in a more balanced way.
Yes @timd you are so right.
Steemit is a living machine already and we now living inside changing and adapting as we can.
That is the beauty of it decentralized, more power to the people?
#morepowertotheminnows !
Great great post :)
The biggest problem is I like to upvote good articles, but I work full time and I my kid and his wife have converted my house to a cross between the Partridge family and the Brady Bunch. I can only read so much a day and then I have to unplug from the matrix.
How do you define Dolphins? Can you give a range of their SP?
Honestly, I haven't bothered to work it out yet. Nor have I seen a post that addresses it, would be good for someone to do it!
But what about us the jellyfishes??? think about that for a second, it's scary down here! Great post by the way...
What is a dolphin, user? superuser? I agree with your post, after putting in some time I was able to work my way up the ranks from dust to the lower end of superuser now...I guess I'm a dolphin now?
great ending to that post! Finding Nemo. Finding Dolphin ;) Love your thoughts. And a growing middle class :) Steemit did something that many couldn't do :)
Hello @timd - I'm so new here, I haven't even fully tried to understand the monetization or distribution. Whales...Minnows...Dolphins... okay! All I can do is write and hope it catches someone's attention. But as much as I want to earn money, my passion is writing. That's what I know and that's what I'm going to stick with. Good to know who the whales are though... I may have to check them out and see what kind of content they're putting out. Have a great day!
The most important thing will always be to work hard and put out good content, attention will come :)
LOL - I hope so! I've never won a beauty or a popularity contest. May quality shine above the fray because time is a precious commodity too, and I'm doing my best to develop well-informed, cited work for Steemit, when I could be writing for my own personal blog. Ah, the big girl choices I have to make, eh? ;)
Great post, do you have a guesstimate for how much steem power one needs to be a dolphin in the current market?
I'm also wondering this same thing on what steam power values would you consider a dolphin?
Great post! As more users come, dolphins will become an even bigger deal as well.
They already do. I've had post of mine get into the hundreds just on Dolphins and Minnows. It happens.
Nice! I'm yet to see it but I believe that 100% :)
Agree dolphin are mostly active compare to whales . i have write about steemians 4 categories .
https://steemit.com/steemit/@rainchen/welcome-to-steemsea-4-steemians-categories-planktons-minnows-dolphin-and-whales-what-are-they
Check them out if you got some time :)
The Steem platform, I believe, will be the stepping stone for all future social media platforms to follow. It's a breakthrough in social media technology, which rewards its content creators with money. I love the idea, and I'm glad to be apart of this revolution!
May we all continue to contribute to such a beautifully structured social media platform!
It will change everything people expect from their social networks...hopefully!!!
Like @dan said. "There is no incentive to be a majority holder of a small puddle. " At the end of the day, it's the numbers that will drive this community to success. To the moon!
Nice post! A lot of people put a lot of emphasis on the whales. And, rightfully so because they do make a big impact. But the dolphins and the minnows are the backbone of steemit! We keep it going:)
That's exactly where I see things going, as we continue to add people to the platform. Eventually, we'll have the Steemit many people are calling for, and it'll be awesome.
Exactly, people just need to be patient!
Great article, I like your perspective on the matter and I'd have to agree. In this form of economy, a strong middle class means more success and wealth for all. It's a delicate ecosystem, but with power increased in the middle class, they can become a voice for the voiceless and bring attention to matters that count in larger numbers.